Tag Archives: Mating

When a rooster mates with the hens, his sperm make their way to the hens’ oviducts. The eggs are fertilized by the sperm in the oviducts before albumen and shells are formed. Thus, you get fertilized eggs. Broody hens will lay a clutch of a dozen fertile eggs or more during a two-week period, laying one egg per day, and then starts incubating them for about 21 days for these little bundles of joy to hatch! Watch these amazing chicken egg hatching video clips:

Most backyard chicken keepers say the optimal ratio of roosters to hens is about 1:12, and 1:6 for Silkie Bantams. With too many roosters, hens will lose the feathers on their backs, and in some cases can be so rough that the hens begin to bleed. Watch this clip to see when there are too many roosters, they will gang up on a hen.

Chickens actually have sex or mate just like other animals do, but not necessarily to lay eggs. This is because once a hen reaches maturity at about 6 months of age, lighting conditions trigger hormones to start the egg laying cycle. She can lay eggs without mating with a male. Egg laying is spurred by hormones, hormones are triggered by environmental factors. If you remove the environmental triggers, you can stop the egg laying. If you hope to add more chicks to your flock, however, you will […]